Multilayer films are often used in cook-in applications for packaging food products such as mortadella, ham, and poultry products. These films are often oriented during manufacture, in order to impart heat shrinkability to the film when it is used to package a product. This feature assures a tight fitting package when the packaged product is exposed to a heated medium such as hot air or hot water, and the film shrinks tightly around the package. The orientation step can often be a critical step in determining the overall efficiency and cost of the total manufacturing process. It is therefore desirable to find materials that can be used in an orientation step in a more efficient way.
Crystalline polyamides such as Nylon 6 (polycaprolactam) are attractive materials to use in multilayer shrink films, especially those used in cook-in applications. Nylon 6 in particular provides some stiffness, heat and abuse resistance, and elastic recovery to the film. Shrink films with nylon 6 also offer high shrink tension. It is therefore desirable to include as much nylon 6 into an oriented film structure as possible, in particular for films intended for cook-in applications.
Unfortunately, the use of Nylon 6 in shrink films gives rise to certain problems as well. The same property of stiffness (i.e. high modulus) which is useful in films made from this material, also creates problems during the orientation of the film during manufacture. Nylon 6 is also a very crystalline material, and for this reason also does not readily orient, especially in tubular orientation processes. As the thickness of the nylon 6 goes up, it becomes increasingly difficult to orient at commercial rates. Optics of the finished film can be adversely affected, and in the worst case bubble breaks will result.
A potential solution can be found by lowering the temperature at which orientation is done. For example, instead of orienting at 210.degree. F., the material can be oriented at 150.degree. F. However, this is not a practical alternative because of another feature of nylon 6.
That feature is the cost of nylon 6. This material is usually more expensive than many olefinic polymer resins commercially available and useful in packaging applications, especially shrink packaging. It is therefore desirable from an economic viewpoint to incorporate relatively inexpensive olefinic polymers into multilayer films that also include nylon 6. Unfortunately, these olefins generally require relatively high orientation temperatures (up to 210.degree. F. in some cases). This is especially true when ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), a useful oxygen barrier resin, is also incorporated in the structure. Thus, these factors are inconsistent with the potential option of lowering orientation temperature.
The inventors' solution has three features. First, the desired amount of nylon is introduced into the film formulation, not as a single layer, but as two or more layers. Second, the plural layers of nylon are separated by at least one intervening layer of a material having a modulus lower than the modulus of the crystalline nylon, and having a crystallinity of less than 60%. Third, the crystalline nylon is itself blended with a material which disrupts the crystallinity of the crystalline nylon.